The two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, disposed of the petition filed by the Centre on Tamil Nadu government's proposal seeking an early release of the convicts.

On August 10, the Centre stated that the President had rejected the proposal to release seven convicts. The affidavit from the central government came after the apex court asked the Centre to explain its take on Tamil Nadu's 2016 decision to acquit all seven convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

All seven - Nalini, Perarivalan, Murugan, Santhan, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran - were convicted in the case. All seven convicts are serving life terms and had been in jail for the last 27 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)